Lawrence Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi | |
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Governor of Enugu State | |
Assumed office 29 May 2015 |
|
Deputy | Cecilia Ezeilo |
Preceded by | Sullivan Chime |
Personal details | |
Born |
Orba Town, Eastern Region, Nigeria (now Orba Town, Udenu Local Government Area, Enugu State, Nigeria) |
March 20, 1964
Political party | People's Democratic Party |
Lawrence Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (popularly known as "Gburugburu") is a Nigerian politician who was elected the Executive Governor of Enugu State in April 2015 and was sworn in on 29 May 2015. He was a member of the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for 12 years. He is a People's Democratic Party (PDP) member and represented Igboeze North/Udenu Federal Constinuency of Enugu State. Ugwuanyi was elected governor of Enugu State under the PDP.
Ugwuanyi was born in March 1964 and hails from Orba Town in Udenu Local Government Area of Nsukka Zone in Enugu State. He holds Bachelor and Master's degrees in Business Administration from University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Before joining politics, Ugwuanyi was the general manager of Premier Insurance Brokers Limited Enugu and has also been the president of the Rotary Club of Emene in Enugu State.
Ugwuanyi has been a member of the House of Representatives of Nigeria since 2003 and he was the Chairman, House Committee on Marine Transport. Rt Hon Ugwuanyi remains today in the history of Nigeria as the only law-maker both in the Upper and Lower Houses to attain this feat of serving two consecutive tenor as Chairman of Marine Transport. This shows the level of trust and confident his peers in the parliament hold for Mr Ugwuanyi and the quality of his leadership potentials that helped brought revolutionary changes and transformation to the Marine Transport sector in Nigeria. Before becoming the Chairman of the House Committee on Marine Transport, Rt Hon Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has also held the position of Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Pensions where he helped enacted the all important Pension Act 2004.
Following his party's primary election of 8 December 2014 in Enugu, Ugwuanyi won PDP's gubernatorial ticket, which made him the State's PDP governorship candidate for the 2015 general election. However, another PDP gubernatorial aspirant, Senator Ayogu Eze, was not happy with the conduct of the primary. Eze went to court to challenge the legitimacy of Ugwuanyi's emergence as the PDP’s flag-bearer for Enugu State governorship. Eze's petition was finally dismissed by Justice Evoh Stephen Chukwu, an Abuja Federal High Court Judge, who ruled that Ugwuanyi’s election in the gubernatorial primary was legitimate and legally binding.